Sweden said it didn't need a lockdown because people could be trusted to socially distance themselves. The government still says the strategy is working.

Most people seem to miss the glaring point.

The choice was, postpone deaths and wreck the economy, or have more early deaths and keep from wrecking the economy?

Sweden chose to allow more early deaths, gambling on having lots fewer later. The US chose to spread them out, longer.

For all places, as long as the treatment facilities don’t get completely overwhelmed, without a vaccine, either choice should lead to about the same deaths per capita when this is over.

So Sweden has a higher death rate now, per capita, than US and neighbors who chose more draconian lockdowns. Duh. No shiite, Sherlock. The test is, will they be over it, sooner?

Yes. And they won’t have 30% unemployment and a giant crash in Quality Of Life.

The Faucis of this world, many here apparently, said it would lead to horror in the streets, bodies piling up. That we had no choice!!! Med centers will be overwhelmed, millions dying!!! No ventilators! They screamed when some states said, naw. Doom and gloom forecast!!! Bodies piling up!!! Just watch!!! Excess deaths from lack of treatment!!!

WRONG.

“Sweden is sticking with its unusual coronavirus strategy, relying on people to take responsibility and follow guidelines...like a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people”

But a good portion of this forum feel that such a restriction imposes on their freedom, so such a plan wouldn’t work here.

A simplistic approach would say that therefore, based on these statistics, Sweden’s approach has cost about 400 lives, roughly 4 per 100,000.

All I will say is that while I am not a professional economist, I have a very good undergraduate level training in it from an Ivy League school and at some point after my undergraduate education learned to think really, really critically, and my conclusion is that I at least do not have enough information to draw a conclusion at this point and am inclined to treat anyone who thinks that they do, at least based on the figures that you present without further context, as if they are about 3 years old. Smile, nod, and get on with life. And be really glad one is not in charge in either Sweden or Denmark.

Personally, I’d rather live in Sweden, and that’s saying a lot because my father’s background is Norwegian. But there is a difference between a personal choice that is based on SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) and solid statistical analysis.

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